The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson

The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Available for the first time and collected in one volume, the letters of one of America's most beloved authors, Laura Ingalls Wilder--a treasure trove that offers new and unexpected understanding of her life and work.

The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a vibrant, deeply personal portrait of this revered American author, illuminating her thoughts, travels, philosophies, writing career, and dealings with family, friends, and fans as never before.

This is a fresh look at the adult life of the author in her own words. Gathered from museums and archives and personal collections, the letters span over sixty years of Wilder's life, from 1894-1956 and shed new light on Wilder's day-to-day life. Here we see her as a businesswoman and author--including her beloved Little House books, her legendary editor, Ursula Nordstrom, and her readers--as a wife, and as a friend. In her letters, Wilder shares her philosophies, political opinions, and reminiscences of life as a frontier child. Also included are letters to her daughter, writer Rose Wilder Lane, who filled a silent role as editor and collaborator while the famous Little House books were being written.

Wilder biographer William Anderson collected and researched references throughout these letters and the result is an invaluable historical collection, tracing Wilder's life through the final days of covered wagon travel, her life as a farm woman, a country journalist, Depression-era author, and years of fame as the writer of the Little House books. This collection is a sequel to her beloved books, and a snapshot into twentieth-century living.

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in a log house in the Wisconsin woods in 1867 and died in 1957. During the 1870s and 1880s, Mary and her family traveled across America's heartland, eventually landing in Dakota Territory. In 1885, she married Almanzo Wilder, and their only child, Rose, was born the next year. In 1894, the Wilders acquired a permanent residence at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. Laura penned the first of her beloved Little House stories in 1932, after years of farming.

The Little House books are all considered international classics. Her novels are still considered the ultimate American pioneer story in the twenty-first century.